Washoe Country School District
Change Font Size
Marco Lopez's Profile
Galena Student Catches Up to Get Ahead in Life
Student: Marco Lopez
School: Galena High School
Galena High School student Marco Lopez had a rough start to his high school experience. He spent his freshman year in Mexico, but earned no credit for English. For the next year and a half as a sophomore and part way into his junior year, he attended school in Yerington, Nev., improving as a student before coming to Galena.
It was his attitude, however, that helped him make it through to this week, when he receives his high school diploma and prepares for a career in the U.S. Army.
“I almost gave up,” Marco said. “I was lost. I went back to Mexico but saw that I had no future there.”
Marco believed the only way to find success was to finish high school in the United States, especially since as a child he saw his father struggling to make a living.
Marco’s counselor at Galena, Joseph Stuart, said Marco persevered to make up for his lost credits. When he enrolled at Galena, Marco was two credits short in English and had not yet passed the Nevada state proficiency exam in writing. But he began working to make up those credits in the school’s Plato computer lab.
“He really started to make incredible progress,” he said. “His English has improved dramatically and he passed the writing proficiency test and he earned U.S. history, second semester world history and English 1, 2, 5 and 6 credits in the Plato lab. He has shown a terrific positive attitude throughout his journey.”
With his father having to stay in Mexico, he’s been relying on the support of an aunt and uncle, who are his legal guardians in Nevada.
“I just decided to keep going,” Marco said. “I was almost ready to give up, but I wanted to come back and work.”
